Dein erstes Forum » ng first period, give ourselves a chance with

NEW YORK -- The New York Yankees have apparently caught the Baltimore Orioles at the right time as they attempt to inch closer to first place in the American League East.New York has capitalized on absences to Baltimores lineup and a slump by those who are playing to take the first three games of the series.The Yankees can get the four-game sweep of the Orioles on Thursday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.Weve always felt that way, Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira said of making a run in the AL East. Its a long season. Im not sure exactly how many games are left, but theres a lot of games left and we never got too low when we were struggling early on in the season and were not going to celebrate because we won four in a row because we got to go win tomorrow.Baltimore has played three games without Chris Davis, who is slowly recovering from a stomach virus. The Orioles have played the last two without Matt Wieters (sore right foot), were without Manny Machado (stomach virus) on Wednesday and Adam Jones left in the eighth inning with back spasms.Davis is likely to play and Jones left no doubt about his status, saying Ive got nothing else to do.As for Wieters and Machado, acting manager John Russell said both are day to day. So is manager Buck Showalter, who also caught the stomach virus, but Russell would be surprised if Showalter wasnt making out the lineup Thursday.Its probably going to take a hurricane hitting New York for him not to be here tomorrow, Russell said.Regardless of what the opposing lineup looks like, the Yankees will try to get a fifth straight win, which is one shy of their season high, and continue their run of good pitching.During a four-game streak that has seen the Yankees (48-46) knock Baltimore from first place and match a season high by getting two games above .500, New York has received sharp performances from Masahiro Tanaka, Ivan Nova, Nathan Eovaldi and Michael Pineda.Its playoff baseball for us, and we have to play extremely well, Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. I think theyre responding, especially after we lost two to start out this homestand. They responded well and we need them to keep doing that.Pineda struck out eight and allowed five hits in six scoreless innings during Wednesdays 5-0 win. Starting with Tanaka, New Yorks starting pitchers have allowed three earned runs in the last 36 innings, marking the first time the Yankees have had four straight starts of one earned run or less since Sept. 18-21, 2003.Meanwhile, the Orioles are experiencing adequate starting pitching but ineffective hitting. The Orioles are batting .267 overall but .187 (36-for-193) in their last six games and are 3-for-33 with runners in scoring position during those games.Its tough right now, Russell said. Weve lost some key guys in our lineup. When you lose that many at once, it makes it pretty tough and hopefully theyll start trickling back into the lineup sooner rather than later.The Yankees are in line for their first four-game sweep of the Orioles since Sept. 18-21, 2005, at the original Yankee Stadium but must get enough offense against Chris Tillman (13-2, 3.29 ERA).Tillmans record is 11 games above .500 for the first time since he was 16-5 after a win over the Yankees on Sept. 9, 2013. He also is 6-0 against teams from the AL East after allowing one run and four hits in seven dominant innings during Saturdays 2-1 win at Tampa Bay.The Orioles are 9-0 in Tillmans starts against divisional opponents.Team wins are important, Tillman said. All the personal stuff goes by the wayside when it comes to winning ballgames. Thats our approach and its good to be a part of it.Two of those victories have been against the Yankees at Camden Yards.On May 3, Tillman struck out nine while allowing one run and five hits in seven innings during a 4-1 win. A month later, he allowed five runs and eight hits in 5 2/3 innings and did not get a decision when his teammates rallied for a 6-5 win.Tillman is 4-6 with a 4.87 ERA in 18 career starts against the Yankees.In New York, he is 3-4 with a 7.30 ERA in eight outings.CC Sabathia will be seeking his 20th career win against the Orioles and his 15th with the Yankees. More important, he will be looking to reverse some of his recent struggles.Since June 22, he is 0-3 with a 7.94 ERA and during those starts he has allowed 39 hits and walked 10 in 28 1/3 innings.Before lowering his ERA to 3.94 during the recent stretch, Sabathia had a 0.82 ERA in a span of seven starts and was the first Yankee to allow four earned runs or less in a span of seven starts since Phil Niekro did it in 1984 at age 45.The latest subpar outing for Sabathia was Saturdays 5-2 loss to the Boston Red Sox when he allowed five runs and nine hits in 5 1/3 innings.Sabathia faced the Orioles twice when the teams met in Baltimore. On May 4, he allowed six hits in seven innings during a 7-0 victory while suffering a groin injury. On June 5, he allowed two hits but walked six in five innings and the Yankees eventually lost 3-1.Antonio Rudiger Chelsea Jersey . Galatasaray said in a statement on its website Monday that Mancini signed a three-year contract and will be paid 3.5 million euros for the upcoming season, with his salary upped to 4. Ross Barkley Chelsea Jersey . -- New England Revolution goalkeeper Matt Reis is retiring after a 16-year career to become the goalie coach for the Los Angeles Galaxy. http://www.chelseafcproshop.com/Kids-Davide-Zappacosta-Jersey/ . Hamelin, who triumphed in the 500 on Saturday, edged out Victor An of Russia by 0.021 seconds to maintain his lead in the World Cup standings. Russias Vladimir Grigorev was third. In the relay, Canada took control six laps from the finish line to beat Russia and the Netherlands. Danny Drinkwater Jersey . -- Former San Diego Chargers safety Paul Oliver was found dead at his Atlanta-area home Tuesday night, and a medical examiner said Wednesday that the ex-player committed suicide. Gary Cahill Jersey . It was hard for Luck to pull off another comeback, or even get into the end zone, while standing on the sideline. Rivers threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to rookie Keenan Allen and Nick Novak kicked four field goals to give the Chargers a 19-9 victory against the Colts on Monday night.ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Veteran Antoine Vermette is managing to look every bit as fresh as his 21-year-old linemates.Vermette and Corey Perry each had a goal and an assist, and the Anaheim Ducks scored a season-high three power play goals to beat the Ottawa Senators 5-1 on Sunday afternoon.Joseph Cramarossa, Sami Vatanen and Vermettes linemate Nick Ritchie also scored for the Ducks, and John Gibson made 21 saves.Hes a dominant center iceman with the puck and thats a huge advantage, Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said of Vermette, his third-line center. And we like to play into that.Ryan Dzingel scored for the Senators, who lost their second straight game in Southern California. Mike Condon made 10 saves before being removed for Andrew Hammond in the second period. Hammond made 16 saves.Trying to get something and give Hammond some ice time, too, Senators coach Guy Boucher said. We had Condon starting the game, we wanted to see what it would look like to get him in on a back-to-back. If our players were in the game and were playing very good, with the same score I probably would have done something different. But I saw right away that our guys just werent in this game.Boucher lamented the teams lack of effort the day after a 4-1 loss in Los Angeles.It was a no-show all around. Not good, Boucher said. We wanted to rebound from yesterday. We played a hard game yesterday and it didnt turn out our way but we didnt give much to the opponent and played a physical game. Today, we didnt play a physical game at all.The 34-year-old Vermette facilitated Ritchies goal with a beautiful backhand pass into the slot at 10:29 in the second period, giving the Ducks a 4-1 lead -- 21-year-old linemate Ondrej Kase also assisted on the tally.Vermette capitalized on the power play with 47 seconds left in the first period to make it 3-1.Nothing too special, Vermette said. We want to create some shooting lanes with good positioning, we havve our setup and good players on the team.dddddddddddd Its a matter of executing and eventually the puck goes in. Tonight was one of those nights.Vatanen closed the scoring with a power-play goal off the crossbar at 7:59 in the third period.Perry scored his first power-play goal of the season at 12:05 in the first to break a 1-1 tie. Perry has scored twice in the last three games after going 18 games without a goal.Dzingel scored at 7:53 in the first when he finished off a feed from the corner boards by Bobby Ryan, momentarily tying the game at 1-1.Cramarossa scored on a rebound 2:58 into play to give the Ducks a 1-0 lead.We wanted to have a strong first period, give ourselves a chance with a good strong start, Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said. Get our skating game going, get our forechecking game going. Then we can build on it the rest of the game.The Ducks have won three in a row at Honda Center.We had a pretty strong homestand up until this point, and we wanted to win another one before hitting the road, Ritchie said. Thats a big win for us heading out for a six-game road trip.Game notesOttawas Mark Borowiecki served the first game of his two-game suspension for a boarding hit on the Kings Tyler Toffoli. ... The Senators gave up three power-play goals for the third time this season, including Saturday night in a 4-1 loss to the Kings. The other time came on Nov. 29 in 5-4 loss to Buffalo. ... Anaheim D Korbinian Holzer and RW Jared Boll were healthy scratches. ... Ottawa RW Buddy Robinson was a healthy scratch. ... Ottawa G Craig Anderson remained away from the team for the third straight game on personal leave with his wife as she undergoes cancer treatments.UP NEXTSenators: Return home to host the Sharks on Wednesday.Ducks: Open a six-game road trip in Dallas on Tuesday. ' ' '